TV Review: Steven Universe 3×13 “Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service”

I’m sick of that resolution. I’m haunted by it like Kiki is haunted by cheese. It’s everywhere I look, and I can’t escape it.

But Steven Universe knows what it’s doing, and it doesn’t always fumble its message by telling and not showing (as in “Mr. Greg”). And “Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service” is one of the most satisfying episodes of the new run.

After “The New Lars” and “Super Watermelon Island,” it’s become increasingly obvious that the long term implications of “Chille Tid” had less to do with Malachite and more to do with Steven’s dream powers. When they’ll become a pivotal power of his remains to be seen, but until then, it’s great that we can slowly emphasize the importance and evolution of his powers with the Beach City folks.

And actually my favorite part of “Kiki’s” is that Steven doesn’t simply suggest that Kiki talk to her twin about pushing her job onto her and the immense stress it’s causing (and by the way, Kiki’s freakout about her nightmares was pretty reminiscent of Mr. Smiley’s dark revelation that he hadn’t slept in six days back in “Too Short To Ride”). Steven doesn’t really know what to do and decides that helping Kiki with her stress one night at a time is the way to go.

It’s not until he decides he can’t help her anymore that he also decides to find the root of the problem, and it’s not just Steven’s constant goodness that serves as his wisdom, but instead a slow, earned diagnosis of someone’s mental health. So when he sees Kiki tell her dreamy, cheesy twin that everything’s okay, his simple “you’re lying” is so much better than “Mr. Greg’s “why don’t you talk to each other?” It’s not something he knew all along, it’s a revelation stumbled upon after a journey with a side character.

And that shot.

Some might think it slight, but I thought that this was one of the most emotionally rewarding episodes of Steven Universe, and I’m way on board to see more of both Pizza sisters.

Score: 9/10

Joey's a 23-year-old who graduated from the University of Minnesota Morris and now lives in Minnesota's Twin Cities. He enjoys art, activism, and politics, especially when he's looking at them through a lens of popular culture. First and foremost he's obsessed with popular music, but aside from what you'd expect, he's also into comic strips, graphic novels, cartoons, and indie games made for mobile phones (his highest tile in Threes is 3,072). He'll tell you that his favorite book of all time is Goodnight Moon. He needs more people in his life who understand the joys of Achewood.